Interracial Marriages - “Say Yes”
Wolff writes, “They talked about different things and somehow got on the subject of whether white people should marry black people. He said that all things considered, he thought it was a bad idea. "Why?" she asked." They don't come from the same culture as we do. Listen to them sometime - they even have their own language.” Anne endorses interracial marriages as long as they are founded on love. Comparatively, her husband does not support them because he thinks the cultural differences between the white and black people would doom the marriage. However, alluding to language differences does not support the husband’s position, since there are black people who speak whites’ languages, such as English.
Infidelity - “Soldier's Joy”
Wolff describes, “Hooper watched them and tried not to think of Mickey’s bedroom, but now he could think of nothing else. Mickey’s husband was a supply sergeant with a taste for quality. The walls of the bedroom were knotty pine he’d derailed en route to some colonel’s office. The brass lamps beside the bed were made from howitzer casings. The sheets were parachute silk.” Hooper as an adulterous affair with Mickey. His familiarity with the bedroom surmises that he has been there. The infidelity indicates that both of them are not content with their current partners.
Depression - “Soldier's Joy”
Porchoff asserts, “That’s me. It’s got so even when people use my real name I hear ‘Porkchop.’ All I can think of is this big piece of meat. And that’s what they’re seeing too. You can say they aren’t, but I know they are.” Porchoff is depressed because people pronounce his name as “pork chop.” The pronunciation distresses him immensely. He feels mortified by his status which is mostly defined by his name. His suicidal thoughts are partly attributed to the name which humiliates him among his peers.
